North Korea says it is under ‘Leningrad-style’ siege from US-led forces

North Korea’s top military body has accused US-led “hostile forces” of laying siege to the country like Leningrad in World War II and Cuba during the Cold War missile crisis.

The UN adopted its toughest economic sanctions to date on North Korea after Pyongyang conducted its fourth nuclear test in January and a space rocket launch a month later

In a statement carried Monday by the North’s official KCNA news agency, a spokesman for the National Defence Commission (NDC) also said the latest UN sanctions imposed on Pyongyang over its nuclear weapons program were “anachronistic and suicidal” and could trigger a nuclear strike on the US mainland.

The UN Security Council adopted its toughest economic sanctions to date on North Korea after Pyongyang conducted its fourth nuclear test in January and a space rocket launch a month later that was widely viewed as a disguised ballistic missile test.

The NDC spokesman said the sanctions were the work of “the US and other hostile forces” who were intent on attacking North Korea “in a flock to swallow it up.”

South Korea conducted a large-scale live fire exercise on Monday on the East Sea.

The drill involving K-9 self-propelled artillery units and 130mm multiple rocket launchers was held in the coastal county of Goseong, which borders the North.

The aim of the exercise was to role play “the scenario of a possible North Korean maritime provocation”, South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-Gyun told reporters.